The One Night a Year
by When In Doubt Smile
Summary: Natasha has had one of the most interesting lives, so it makes sense that her Christmas stories would be the most interesting. (Or Natasha's most memorable Christmases.)


**Disclaimer: I don't own the Avengers. All rights belong to Marvel.**

**Some helpful information: Ded Moroz is the Russian version of Santa Claus. And the Russian words mean "Silent night, holy night". **

* * *

The One Night a Year

* * *

One night a year, Natasha Romanoff allows herself to be a child.

As a little girl, Natalia would stay awake all night and eagerly await the arrival of Ded Moroz. She would sit by the fire, huddled in blankets and stare at the Christmas tree, singing carols to herself under her breath. Natasha doesn't usually remember those nights. Sometimes a feeling of happiness will wash over her when she hears her favorite Christmas carol sung in Russian. She will smile when she sits next to a fire and looks at a Christmas tree, with a sense of déjà vu hanging around her like her childhood blankets.

* * *

The Red Room firmly discouraged the idea of Christmas. It was a frivolous holiday. For years, Christmas passed without fanfare for Natalia. There were no presents, no carols, no cookies. The only reminder that such a holiday existed was in the rare trips out into the real world.

When Natalia was fifteen, she was sent on a mission to assassinate an ambassador. It was a boring mission, and she was actually dreading the hours of surveillance that would be necessary for the mission's success. What she didn't expect was the ambassador's love of Christmas. They had the biggest tree Natalia had ever seen. Their cook made batches of star, tree, and snowman-shaped cookies each day. They had presents galore underneath the tree and the carols never stopped playing.

Natalia wasn't even really thinking when she left her hiding spot and went introduced herself to the daughter of the ambassador as Georgia Williams, a fellow American in need of a friend. The girls hit it off immediately and by the end of the day, Natalia was inside the house, eating cookies, and singing carols with her new friend's family.

It was the best Christmas present ever.

Over the course of the next two weeks leading up to Christmas, Natalia went to concerts, ate more sweets than she thought possible, went caroling, even had her first sleep over on Christmas Eve. She had explained to the family that she was a foreign exchange student and they had offered her the chance to spend Christmas Eve and the following day with their family. She spent Christmas Eve wrapping presents and walking the streets of Russia as white snow fell from the sky. That night she curled up on the couch with her new friend and waited for Santa Claus, because that's what they call Ded Moroz in America, and covers don't just disappear, even if it's Christmas Eve.

Christmas day is full of presents for everyone. Natalia is shocked to find presents for Georgia. The new dress she gets from her adopted family nearly brings tears to her eyes. She dances around the house and sings songs and it is the happiest day of her life. She is even included in the family Christmas photo. The ambassador even planned for some traditional Russian food to be part of Christmas dinner, claiming that Georgia should be able to write home about Russian Christmas traditions, even if she spends the day with an American family. Natalia eats the food and partakes in the Russian traditions with a fuzzy throat and barely restrained tears because she almost remembers doing these same things with her parents.

The day is almost perfect.

It would have been perfect if not for the fact that she has one day left to assassinate the ambassador or be killed herself.

The next morning she cries as she slips the poison in the adopted father's cup. But the poison doesn't work fast enough. The Red Room figures out about Natalia's treason and the whole family if left dead on the floor before they can even finish their breakfast.

Natalia shakes for hours afterward. The perfect Christmas isn't worth the horror.

* * *

When Natalia is 20, she has another memorable Christmas. It's her second Christmas away from the Red Room, but neither year has she found herself in a position to celebrate. She is in Prague on a mission to get some information from a high-security company. It's another boring job that she won't receive a large enough paycheck for.

She's sitting on the roof of the neighboring building watching the manager of the company lock up when she hears the drawstring to a bow being pulled back.

The rest, they say, is history.

Clint gives Natalia an option. Just one. He doesn't even say 'work for us or die" (which sort of annoys Natalia, she likes it when people give her melodramatic choices). He just offers her his hand and a job.

In a moment made for cliché movies, Natalia accepts his offer just as the clock strikes 12:00 and Christmas day officially arrives.

* * *

Their first Christmas as partners is just awkward. Neither knows if they are supposed to get each other a Christmas present, so they reason with themselves that they will buy one and give it to the other only if a present is offered to them first. Let it suffice to say that those Christmas presents still sit in the backs of their closets, gathering dust, forever.

* * *

He also proposes on Christmas. It's sweet and there's hot chocolate involved and the other Avengers are torn between sighing at the sweetness and ridiculing the couple for how cliché it all is. It's a great night.

* * *

All the Christmases after are pure magic. Clint never forgets Natasha's favorite Russian traditions or how she likes her hot chocolate. They always buy an enormous tree and decorate it the day after Thanksgiving. Cookies galore fill their house. Natasha even wears a cheesy Christmas sweater one year. Her favorite part is always singing Christmas carols in Russian, though. She's not quite sure why. It just makes her happy.

Every Christmas Eve, Clint and Natasha curl up in their blankets and sit next to their fireplace. Natasha smiles and leans her head on Clint's shoulder and always ends up falling asleep. As her eyes flutter closed she can almost see a little girl with red hair sitting next to a fire, staring at a Christmas tree, and softly singing Тихая ночь, дивная ночь to herself.

* * *

**Author's Note: Not much to say here except, thanks so much for reading and reviewing.**

** Merry Christmas and happy holidays,**

** -When In Doubt, Smile**


End file.
